lovin livin

I have tons of pictures to bombard the blog with but I made Adam take the camera back to Milwaukee with him so I wouldn't have to tote it in the airport. So I'll be doing a big Christmas post in January...
I'm staying here in Monterey until at least Jan 5--maybe longer if the girls get the Chicken Pox in time! Uncles Samuel (10) and Porter (6) both had chicken pox since we've been here so we're sure to get it. I am actually very glad they'll both get it and be done with it for their lives. But apparently if they are contagious when are flights are scheduled, we'll have to wait until they aren't! Time will tell.

When I ask Adam to tell me what he was like as a child, I usually get a few stories about him sneaking under the kitchen window so his mom couldn't see him running away down the block, sneaking away from joy school by himself and walking home, etc. He was always wanting to be free doing something fun.
So we are here in California for the holidays (well, Adam has gone back to Milwaukee to catch a flight to Louisiana for the Sugar Bowl now) and Jane is starting to exhibit this same behavior. She has learned how to open doors here, since they are much easier to open than ours, and is abusing her talent, if you ask me. We were all in our room going to sleep the other night when we saw this little head bobbing along the wall, a hand reach up to the doorknob, and then some pattering down the hall even after Adam's stern "Jane!" Sneaky sneaky.
Today she wouldn't stay down for her nap. Gammie kept putting her back, the little stinker (Jane, not Gammie). Finally my mom came in laughing because she'd just watched Jane come out of the room on her bottom, scoot down the hall on her little rear until she was "all clear," then stood up, brushed her hands off with one of those "well that's taken care of" sighs, and ran off to play. She is certainly Adam's girl.

We had part of Christmas a bit early so we wouldn't have to take some big and heavy items (a Kitchen Aid) to California, save room in the suitcases, and use some of the items (video camera, Christmas sweaters) before the big day. With no Christmas tree, our little ficus had to do instead.

Answer: Jane

Adam came home yesterday with a funny look on his face and made me guess what happened. Promotion? No. It was something good. But how would I ever guess that he won a handheld Dyson at work? He was the fastest in the company (until 2:00, when he became the second fastest--by half a second--to a girl who practiced all day) at assembling a big Dyson. Here's to 2nd prize! I can't wait to clean out the cars.

Well, that's what the pie was. I was just going to comment on Kate's post (on our family blog) and confess to all the pie disaster but I also wanted to post a picture of the centerpiece (taken a few minutes ago rather than on Turkey Day), so I may as well make this a grandiose and lengthy post. Let's take the good news first.

1. 
   The centerpiece. No, this is no work of amazement. It's just what you see. 4 candles in the shape of pears on a silver platter and some red prettiness. But the stroke of genius was what I used--at the last second--as the red prettiness. Last year I had the missionaries gather fall leaves as their contribution to dinner and used them in the centerpiece. We didn't have the missionaries this year. I didn't want to gather leaves. Lo and behold, as I was wishing for holly berries, I saw our stash of FIREBALLS in the candy jar. Yes, these are the same fireballs that we inherited from my parents when we got married; I think the only person who has eaten them is Neill. They are proof that candy lasts as food storage. So I just popped a slew of them out on the platter and am mighty pleased with the result. Thank you, Kate, for being impressed. If anybody else is as well, please say so.


2. 
   My house. It was really quite prepared and clean. For this very reason, I am not as ashamed as I probably ought to be about the pie.


3. 
   The turkey. My first turkey! I cooked it in an oven bag with rosemary, sage, thyme, celery, onions, and apples. It DID turn out well and I even saw Christian eating some as leftovers the next day when there was Winfield's birthday pizza freshly delivered. That's when you know it was good! It wasn't dry and had great flavor. Why can I boast about this? Because I am now prepared to tell you about the pie.
   

The first risky thing I did was to use just raspberries rather than raspberries and blackberries (which equals a razzleberry pie). The blackberries were absent from Milwaukee groceries. The second mistake was that I didn't make it before putting the turkey in the oven. So, I knew I'd have to bake the pie just as we would all sit down to dinner. I really felt like a culinary show host at this point: I pre-measured my ingredients and had everything assembled and ready to toss, fill, flute, and slide into the oven. Only one dish would then go into the sink. Does anybody appreciate that? I sure do. And again, this is why I'm not really as embarrassed as I should be about making a pie disaster. Is a good pie better than a clean kitchen? I don't think so. I mean, I'm sorry for Kate because she's the one who took the first bite, and that must have been awful. I'm certainly not proud that I caused her to spit out the pie, and cry out "Laura!" I just crinkled my brow and said, "That bad, huh?" I've never seen Kate spit out my food before. Next she choked out, "Salt!" And that's when I remembered taking my 1-cup measure to the wrong jar. Instead of sugar, I'd baked that raspberry pie with salt.

Everybody in the ward knows about it now. Who should I invite to dinner?

Jane is wearing BIG GIRL panties! Gammie, Uncle (Richard), Samuel, and Porter came for a visit and helped Jane learn how to "hurry, hurry" to the potty, and gave lots of praise for each success. Day 1: 15 accidents and 2 successes. Day 2: 1 accident. Day 3: 2 accidents. And Sunday was the best. She made it all through church and almost through choir practice. I have to admit that most of the accidents since that first day were because we were away from home. Pretty good, little girl.

Instead of throwing a tantrum about the blog books, my friend Laurie did some research and found out how to make it work. She posted the info on her blog. http://travisandlaurie.blogspot.com/2008/11/blog-books-dilemas-answers.html Thanks, Laurie!

...upon the sand. Remember that story? What happened? His house washed away. I feel like the foolish woman who built her blog upon blurb.com. That's right. I started this blog so that I wouldn't have to scrapbook. The wonderful blurb was going to print out my blog for me and I wouldn't have to worry about my family's photo history. Well "whoosh" my house is gone because they no longer download blogger. I feel a complete lack of purpose now. I mean, what is this for now? What am I spending my time doing now? Have you ever seen a dance where people run into each other and there is total mayhem on stage? That's what is happening in my mind right now. Complete lack of direction. So I guess I'll post some random things. Like Jane's cute little "bun."

Or how about the new (old) piano we got? It's an Everett from the 50's that just got new keys 3 years ago. It's so great to have music in our home again. Although, I can barely play it with Jane and Audrey both on the bench with me...
Or did anybody want to hear about how we have ladybugs every year that for some reason love the bathroom. I catch them crawling around all the time. But the worst was when I was brushing my teeth (you know where this is going...) and I felt a "popcorn kernel"--you know those concave little thingos that get stuck in your teeth--except I hadn't eaten any popcorn! So I spit it out and you know what I found but you don't know how loudly I screamed! Man that freaked me out. (I don't think I would say "freaked me out" or "thingos" if this was going to be a printed and bound scrapbook intended to stand the test of time.)

I took Audrey to her 4 month well baby visit on the 21st last month. She was almost 16 pounds. On the 7th, we went again because I thought she had an ear infection (she did). She weighed in at 17 1/2 pounds! That means she's almost out of 9-month clothes! In her defense, I was feeding her lots and lots to keep her congestion at bay while we all had colds this week, so I'm thinking this trend will stop. I should say, I'm hoping so. Because my arms will fall off otherwise!
Other milestones, apart from the scales, are that she

• has found her toes,


• blows bubbles,


• laughs hysterically with Jane, and


• can hold her toys for longer than 2 seconds. Yay!

Is this brainwashing?

I was surprised she remembered this a couple weeks after me showing her! Surprised and proud.

They had coloring for the kiddies where she met up with a fellow lady bug.

On the actual Halloween, Jane and I (and Adam joined us a bit later) met the Mitchells and the Hansons at the mall by our house for trick or treating. Jane's lady bug costume was half wet, so we came up with this Christmas ___? 5 minutes beforehand. I overheard a girl saying "Oh look! It's Santa Clause!" Maybe! Should have thought of a pillow for her belly.

Friday: Alcatraz and the Blue Angels. We happened to be there for the air show and on alcatraz while they were practicing. I was amazed/horrified/thrilled by how close they flew to each other in perfect formation. What daredevils. Alcatraz was pretty interesting, too. We took the audio tour. The only problem was the flies. Yes, that is one on my cheek. They were just swarming.

Of course, the best part of all was the company of my wonderful mother-in-law, Neill, and the best sisters in law that I could ever imagine. I had so much fun.